Bonn, 11 June 2020 - The ASCOBANS Jastarnia Group met for the sixteenth time on 8th and 9th June 2020.  Originally planned to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, the meeting was organized online owing to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  The Jastarnia Group serves as the Steering Group for the ASCOBANS Recovery Plan for Baltic Harbour Porpoises (Jastarnia Plan) and the ASCOBANS Conservation Plan for the Harbour Porpoise Population in the Western Baltic, the Belt Sea and the Kattegat (WBBK Plan). 

Participants from six Range States and ten institutions / NGOs / IGOs  reviewed progress in implementation of the two plans, provided an overview of key activities in each Range States present, and provided other updates across the Baltic and Belt Seas.  Status assessment criteria for progress of the implementation of the actions was also discussed.

The meeting heard an update on the status of the project proposal for part two of Static Acoustic Monitoring of the Baltic Sea Harbour Porpoise (SAMBAH II), discussed potential effects to harbour porpoise of the cod fishing ban in the southern Baltic Sea, and saw presentations on trials using acrylic pearls on static nets to mitigate bycatch, on research in Denmark, and on not-previously-analysed necropsy data from Swedish waters.  The full annotated agenda is available here.

The group also discussed emergency measures for the Harbour Porpoise in the Baltic Sea, including relevant ICES special request advice.  One of the meeting outcomes was the decision for the Jastarnia Group to write up Technical and Scientific Comments on ICES Special Request Advice on Emergency Measures to Prevent Bycatch to the EU Commission.  This document will be made available to the meeting website under 'Report' in due course.

The report of the meeting, along with the reviewed action points, will be made availabe online.